Primary text: Acts 2:14-41
As the sermon preached by St. Peter on the day of Pentecost was the first sermon preached in the Church of God. Here St. Peter preaches the Word with power, the hearers are pricked in their heart, and by his direction they are baptized, and so put in possession of the promised salvation. “When they heard this, they were pricked in their heart;” they said, “What shall we do?” This is the simple, natural, constant course of things divine in the heart of man. When the truth of God is faithfully preached, and when the seed falls on good soil, there is spiritual agitation; the soul is smitten, the heart pierced; there are “great searchings of heart;” the old apathy, self-sufficiency, equanimity, is disturbed and broken up, and the spirit is troubled with a deep disquietude. It discovers that everything is wrong: the past is guilty, the present utterly unsatisfactory, the future clouded. Then comes earnest inquiry: “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” “Wherewithal shall we come before the Lord?” How shall we be forgiven, justified, accepted? What is the path of reconciliation and peace? Through what spiritual experiences must we pass? What is the way into the kingdom of God? The soul, thus in earnest, turns to the sacred Scriptures or addresses those who speak in the name of Christ.
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